


A New Relation

by fringeperson



Category: Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns
Genre: Don't copy to another site, F/M, I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote this and I know better now, Old Fic, Written in 1st Person, but I'm not going to deny its existance just because it's old and bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27445279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fringeperson/pseuds/fringeperson
Summary: A relative comes bearing gifts for the Yoshiokas and there are a few more surprises along the way.~Originally posted in '07.
Relationships: Baron Humbert von Gikkingen/Yoshioka Haru
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I warn you again, this is Very Old Writing - and I haven't changed anything except a couple of typos.

"Oooaow."

I head the groan issue from the lap of a young woman, and supposed that there must be a head in her lap, as she was kneeling upon the ground and appeared very attentive to that which was resting there. Her back was to me, however, so that I couldn't see, and the fence separating her front garden from the street along which I was walking prevented me from seeing very much clearly.

"Hush," I heard her say as I moved closer. "However did you get yourself hurt like this anyway? Were you and Toto fighting again?"

"Meoawr," was the reply that I heard, but she must have understood it, for she gasped and answered to it.

"Why would _Baron_ hit _you_? Is something wrong?" I could not help my curiosity, and stopped to peer over the fence, looking over her shoulder to see who – or what – was cradled in the girl's lap.

A very large cat was sitting there, very likely fatter than even the comic Garfield was supposed to be – the original fat cat of the funny papers. It was all cream fur – except for a spot of brown about one ear, and the girl was wrapping a bandage around the obese feline's head, matching the ones already covering the right foreleg and the tail.

"Reaow aang phft!" Perhaps I had been working to hard, to think that the girl and the cat were talking to each other. How could anyone understand that sort of meowing, yawning cat-talk?

"Alright, I'll come, if you really think it will help, but let me get you something to eat first," the young lady said. She had finished bandaging the blobby cat's head and, with her arms carefully wrapped around him, stood up and headed for the door of her house.

"Haru!" I had started to move on too, but the name arrested my attention – it was my name, and I turned to see who was calling, even though I didn't recognise the voice.

"Oh, hi Hiromi," I heard the girl say, her name must have been Haru too, and the person had called out for her. Shaking my head, I decided that I really must be working to hard, and kept walking.

Taking my diary out of my pocket – the kind of diary in which one keeps appointments, due dates and records the birthdays of friends and family – I checked again to see which of these houses I had to go into. I was supposed to meet my cousin Naoko for lunch, and meet her daughter. We had been close once, the two of us, but when my parents had inherited the ancestral home in Germany, we left.

I stopped and stared at the house number in my diary and turned once more to the house where the girl had been cradling the cat. The number was the same… I looked at the plaque beside the door – it said Yoshioka, Naoko and Haru. She hadn't told me in any of her letters that she had named her child after me. It was certainly a surprise.

Tentatively – I had never met the child before, after all – I opened the gate to the garden and approached her. She was still standing at the door; her soft brown eyes focused on her friend running down the street, so she didn't see me until I asked if she would like me to take the cat for her.

"Who're you?" she demanded. She had jumped at seeing me.

"Naoko's cousin," I said, pointing to the name on the plaque. "I'm in town for a while, and she said to come and visit," I explained.

"Oh," she seemed to think. "Yeah, I remember Mum saying something about a cousin coming over." I confess that it amused me, the way she asked the cat if he would mind my carrying him, and I didn't bother to hide the hint of a smile that tugged at my lips when the cat nodded. I just held out my arms and let myself into Naoko's house.

"Naoko!" I called, taking my shoes off just inside the door, still holding the fat cat. "Hey Cuz, where are you?" I added, moving down the hall in my socked feet.

"Loey!" the woman yelped, barrelling out of one of the doors and almost into me. Since we had moved to Germany, we had all changed our names, translated them sort of, so I became Louise instead of Haru, I don't know why exactly, that's just what I ended up with. I liked it well enough that I started signing my letters Louise when I wrote to Naoko.

"You're still a maniac I see," I said, smiling at her. I was slightly older; maybe a year, but such things didn't really matter to us. "And messy," I added, seeing the kitchen she had led me into. It was quite obvious she had been working on a quilt, the patches were everywhere, cut up and spread out all over the floor and the furniture.

"I learned from the best," she answered, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and giving me a squeeze.

"Yeah, but _I_ grew out of it," I might have gone on, I don't really know. I didn't have anything else lined up to say to her on the subject, but just then, the girl came in: Naoko's daughter.

"Thank you," she said, taking the cat back from my arms and heading for the kitchen. Naoko and I both watched as she took a throw away dish from the fridge, took off the cling-wrap and fed the fish, whole, to the feline in her arms. She ran her fishy fingers under the tap, dried them on her skirt, and turned back to us.

"See you later, I gotta meet a couple of friends," she said, kissing her mother on the cheek.

"Hold it, young lady," Naoko said. I had never heard her speak like that before, of course, the last time she and I had actually _spoken_ was when we were eleven and twelve respectively, since then it had mostly been letters, then e-mails. It must have had something to do with becoming a mother that put that collection of harmonics in my favourite cousin's voice.

"You aren't going anywhere until you've had lunch with your aunt and I," Naoko said. Okay, so I wasn't really the girl's aunt, but Naoko and I were as close as sisters and figuring out my relation to the child would be complicated. I was her mother's cousin; that was enough.

"But it's urgent!" she said, her brown eyes becoming very large.

Naoko shook her head, the cat meowed something, and the girl slumped her shoulders. The girl looked as though I'd told her she had to eat month-old, slimy asparagus – or whatever her least favourite vegetable was.

"Now, introductions," Naoko said, a wicked smile on her face. "Haru, I want you to meet Haru," she announced.

The surprise on her face was obvious, but I had been prepared – I had heard her name called in the street.

"But to save on confusion, you can call me Louise, or Loey. I spent twenty years being called Louise in Germany, so I'm used to it," I said with a smile, extending my hand to the girl who had – obviously – been named after me.

It was a nice lunch, and Haru was very curious to know about Germany, why I was called Louise, and so many other things, but when she had finished eating, she was up like a flash, reiterating that it really was urgent that she be going.

When she was out the door, I told Naoko that I had brought presents for them both, and fished out the parcels from my bag. She tore the paper off, right there, just as I had expected her to. It was comforting to see that she was still so impatient with wrapping paper, a little bit of something about her that had never changed.

"Oh, it's gorgeous Loey," she said, running her fingers over it in awe. I had done that too, the first time I saw it. It was a silk scarf, hand painted. I had found it in a little nowhere place, just hanging in a shop window, like it was waiting for me to buy it, but it had been the one next to it that had suited me, so I bought them both.

"You can wear it to your next convention," I suggested, hinting that she ought to try wrapping it around her neck, not just her fingers. It really looked stunning on her.

"I don't know how to thank you," Naoko said, still in awe of my gift.

"Let me crash on your couch for a couple of nights? I'm so sick of hotels – you can't cook your own meals, everything is so clean… After a year of nothing but one hotel after another…" I had been travelling around the world, living out of an extremely well packed suitcase, and fantastic though it was to see the world, seeing hotel rooms every night was a bit wearying. Naoko seemed to get the idea and smiled. It's great knowing that I have someone like her – that I have her.

Haru announced her return just as I was starting to make dinner – I had gotten as far as wrapping an apron around myself and taking a saucepan from the cupboard.

"Welcome back," I said. "Your mum's searching for a bit of fabric upstairs, but that box on the table there is for you. I didn't know what you would like, so I guessed. I hope it's alright," I added, pointing to the other gift I had brought for the occupants of the house.

Haru just nodded and flopped down on the couch. I noticed that she didn't have the fat cat with her any more.

"Everything alright?" I asked, concerned and curious. I got no response. I tried another tack. "So what was the big emergency at lunchtime?"

"That's what I had to find out," Haru said, moving to lean on the bench rather than just flop on the couch. I may never have had kids, but I recognised a teen that needed to talk when I saw one, and since I wasn't her mother, that made me fair game – not that I minded.

"I'm listening, if you want to tell me that is."

"It's kinda complicated," she started, just watching me cook. I shrugged and said I didn't mind. "Well, about a year ago, something weird happened, and I got to meet this really great guy because of it…" Yes, this was _very_ complicated.

"Skip to today, that's where the problem is," I said, smiling. It was the kind of quirky smile I always wore when people found out just how good I was at listening, and helping them with their problems.

"I really like him, and he really likes me back, but he's kinda promised to someone else, or something, so he's going mental because he isn't allowed to like me, or perhaps because he doesn't want to like me like he does," she blurted out.

"So he's in turmoil – torn between his promise to this other person, and his feelings for you. Right?"

"Yeah," Haru sighed. "It doesn't help the matter that he doesn't even know if this other girl is still alive or not."

"Oh dear," I said. I turned down the heat under the pot and came around the bench to give my "niece" a hug. It was even more complicated than I had thought it could be. "I'm sorry that I don't have an answer for you, just a good meal in half an hour, and a present you haven't opened yet. Go on, it might take your mind off things for a little while," the gentle push in my words was mimicked in a slight nudge towards the box.

Haru pulled the wrapping off with greater neatness than her mother, and opened the white box inside. She just stared for a few seconds, and then the tears started to come. I wrapped my arms around her again, cooing softly, wanting to know what was wrong.

"I said I had no idea what to get you, but I didn't expect this kind of reaction," I said, wiping away the tears.

"Where did you find this?" she asked, looking up at me. She was clutching at the box, I could see that her knuckles were white, now that I looked.

"In an antique and restorations shop… the story is that somewhere she has a partner, but they got separated just before WW1 broke out, somewhere in Japan he's supposed to be… I only got them to sell it to me when I promised that I would look for the partner in Japan, but I haven't found him anywhere," I explained, staring also at the feminine cat figurine in the box. She had fine white fur and shocking blue eyes. That she was wearing a red dress seemed a shame to me – it didn't suit her, she looked lovely anyway, but a lavender gown would have been a better choice.

"I have," Haru breathed. "I guess I'm going out again tomorrow."

"May I come too? I'm curious to see what her partner looks like," I said.

"I'd really appreciate that Aunt Loey."


	2. Chapter 2

So we set off the next day at about 10 in the morning – there was no point, Haru had said, in leaving before then, no one would be awake. Haru took me to a place called the Crossroads, and found the fat cat from yesterday.

"So he isn't yours?" I asked.

"He's his own, but we're friends," she answered, turning to give the cat a poke. "Muta, Aunt Loey and I need to talk to the Baron, will you take us, please?"

"Meoaor," the cat said. I'd swear it was looking at me sceptically, but it hopped down from the chair and headed off.

"Why are we following a cat?" I asked when we had been trailing for a block.

"I can never remember how to get where we're going, and Muta more or less lives there," Haru said, swapping her bag from one hand to the other. The cat doll I had given her was in the bag.

After following the cat for five minutes, I could understand why Haru might have that problem. I had carefully developed the skill of knowing exactly where I was in relation to where I had begun my day – a very useful trick for someone who travelled as much as I had. When we started running over rooftops and climbing bits of forgotten awnings, however, even I got turned about. I would be able to find my way back home just fine, but getting back to where we were going, that would be a real feat.

"Thanks Muta," Haru said to the cat when we reached an archway.

I had to bend just a little to get underneath it – just a little, mind; my head would have brushed the masonry otherwise. I looked around. It was like the perfect neighbourhood, only all the houses were maybe a third the size of the real thing.

"You remember the guy I told you about?" Haru asked me quietly as she took the cat doll out of her bag. I nodded, wondering where she could be going with this. "It's really, really complicated. He lives in that house there," she said, pointing to a lovely yellow house with green trim. It was just as small as the rest.

"Shall I knock?" I asked, looking at her. She closed her eyes, like she was bracing herself to go bungie jumping, and nodded. I tapped a knuckle on the door and stepped back.

I sat down when Haru did, while the whole place flooded with light.

"I'll never get sick of him doing that," she whispered to me, though she was staring at the wooden doll that stood in the hollow of her crossed legs. We waited for a bit, just enjoying the splendour, till at last Haru called to the shut door "Baron, it's me."

The lights intensified slightly before dimming down and the double door gently swung open. I was shocked to see an orange cat wearing a pale suit step out of the house and bow to us.

"Baron, this is my mother's cousin, she wanted to meet you," Haru said, hiding the doll in her lap by gesturing to me.

"A pleasure to meet you, I am Baron Humbert von Gikkingken," he said. I personally thought that he seemed less than pleased to have visitors, though his manner was very fine and his accent was wonderful.

"Well, that's interesting," I said, his name hitting me like a hammer. "Because _my_ name is von Gikkingken too." Haru stared a little more obviously – I was just Aunt Loey to her, and that only since yesterday. "My mother married a German Baron, but he stayed in Japan with her until he inherited the family home, so your mum and I got to play together, more like sisters than cousins. In Japan, I was called Haru, in Germany, I had to be called Louise."

"Baroness Louise von Gikkingken," the cat gentleman almost chocked the words out, his bright green eyes wide in shock.

Haru pulled a face. "That's kind of why we're here," she said, taking the white cat doll out of her lap. "Aunt Loey gave her to me when I got home yesterday," Haru added, setting my gift on the ground before the Baron.

"It's her," the Baron said, moving closer to the doll, examining her face. "But I don't understand…" he said, his hands were on the doll's shoulders, and he was staring intently at the amazing blue eyes, a puzzled expression on his furry face. At least, I think it was a puzzled expression – the fur made it hard to tell.

"What's the matter?" Haru asked.

"She's gone, she should be alive, but she isn't, she's just a doll…" Now I was confused. I had no idea what this fellow was talking about, at all.

I nudged Haru and silently asked her what was going on. She cupped a hand over my ear and whispered the details to me. "Oh," was all I could say, and I said it softly, because the Baron seemed to still be rather distressed at the complete lack of life in the girl cat.

" _Well, at least I kept my promise to the shopkeeper, I found the partner,"_ I thought to myself.

I felt Haru snuggle into me as I watched the Baron give what was obviously a goodbye kiss to the wooden girl to whom he was promised. Lights started flashing around us again, getting brighter and brighter until I had to bring my hand up to shield my eyes against the glare. Then something changed, and the light was everywhere any more – it was concentrated on one spot, where Baron and the doll had stood.

The light coated the figures, then blended together, and changed shape. When at last the light faded, there was a young man kneeling before us with his face in his hands. His hair was the same colour as the fur had been of the Baron. This turn of events I was able to digest with greater speed than the other two.

"A young man needs a family, now that he _is_ a young man, and the von Gikkingken house is rather empty…" I said gently, pretending that I was just thinking to myself. I watched as both Haru and Baron became aware of the change, and what it meant.

"Your husband would not object to you bringing home a stray?" the young man asked, his still bright green eyes looking up at me with hope.

"Don't have one, and my parents would just like there to be some young people in the house again," I said simply. He was handsome, this boy, and Haru was obviously very devoted to him… and since my first present seemed to have disappeared when the Baron went from cat to man, I thought I'd better set this up without too much fuss.

"Naoko will be happy to hear about this," I said, surprising Haru. The question "why" was practically written on her forehead. "When we were kids, we imagined our children getting married, but when I never found a husband, we both despaired of such a thing ever happening. Now though, I don't see why I can't buy the engagement rings… that is, if you two are inclined."

I had stood up while I was talking, and was brushing imaginary dust off my trousers. Baron and Haru had stood up with me, and I knew they were staring from me to each other and back again while I did. I looked back at them when I suggested that they didn't have to get married, just because their parents liked the idea.

Haru jumped the Baron, flinging her arms around his shoulders, a massive smile plastered on her face. The boy's arms found her waist automatically, and he was swinging her around before I think he even realised what he was doing.

"Just, one thing," I said, stopping their joyous moment of realisation. "I'm not calling you Humbert. When we do the adoption papers, we're giving you a normal, sensible name like Andrew or Simon."

He just smiled as largely as Haru. I think that perhaps he wasn't as pleased with Humbert as he pretended to be when he gave the name.


End file.
